Temporomandibular Disorders and Headache.

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and primary headaches can be perpetual and debilitating musculoskeletal and neurological disorders. The presence of both can affect up to one-sixth of the population at any one time. Initially, TMDs were thought to be predominantly musculoskeletal disorders, and migraine was thought to be solely a cerebrovascular disorder.

Trigeminal neuralgia and facial pain imaging.

The trigeminal nerve or fifth cranial nerve has an extensive distribution in the head and face. It is the source for pain conduction and thereby is often implicated in a variety of disorders including inflammatory and neoplastic diseases. To determine the disease source, understanding the trigeminal nerve anatomy is essential, and further being able to image the trigeminal nerve provides insight into the location and type of pathology.

Temporomandibular disorders and headaches.

Headache and temporomandibular disorders should be treated together but separately. If there is marked limitation of opening, imaging of the joint may be necessary. The treatment should then include education regarding limiting jaw function, appliance therapy, instruction in jaw posture, and stretching exercises, as well as medications to reduce inflammation and relax the muscles.

High-pressure headaches, low-pressure syndromes, and CSF leaks: diagnosis and management.

Background: Headache resulting from idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) in a population of moderately to obese women of childbearing age. The causes overall remain unclear. With this review, we provide an overview of clinical treatment and management strategies.

An unusual challenge in performing sphenopalatine ganglion block with enlarged coronoid process: Jacob's disease.

Objectives: Sphenopalatine ganglion block for the treatment of cluster headache has been well-described for medically refractory cases. Technical challenges in performing this procedure via the mandibular notch can be found in patients with elongation of the coronoid process. Objectives include correlation of physical exam findings and computed tomography (CT) imaging, followed by recommendations for future treatment.

Facial pain, cervical pain, and headache.

Purpose Of Review: This review discusses the role of musculoskeletal structures of the jaw and neck in perpetuating or triggering primary headache. Because treatments aimed at these structures often reduce headache, a better understanding of their role in headache is needed.

Recent Findings: Central sensitization may result in changes in the afferent pathways, making communication from cervical and temporomandibular nociceptive neurons to the trigeminal nucleus possible.

Cone beam computed tomography in the diagnosis of dental disease.

Conventional radiographs provide important information for dental disease diagnosis. However, they represent 2-D images of 3-D objects with significant structure superimposition and unpredictable magnification. Cone beam computed tomography, however, allows true 3-D visualization of the dentoalveolar structures, avoiding major limitations of conventional radiographs.

Cone beam computed tomography in the diagnosis of dental disease.

Conventional radiographs provide important information for dental disease diagnosis. However, they represent 2-D images of 3-D objects with significant structure superimposition and unpredictable magnification. Cone beam computed tomography, however, allows true 3-D visualization of the dentoalveolar structures, avoiding major limitations of conventional radiographs.

Facial pain.

Facial pain is a debilitating disorder if left untreated. Too often, patients are labeled as having psychopathology when face pain etiology is unclear. These patients are categorized as "atypical," "idiopathic," or "psychogenic.

Cluster headache and obstructive sleep apnea: are they related disorders?

Patients with cluster headache (CH) have a higher prevalence of sleep apnea, and a possible relationship between these two conditions has been proposed. Although patients suffering from CH attacks often wake up from sleep, sleep apnea has been suggested to be a trigger or an associated abnormality in CH. It has been proposed that regulation of the hypothalamus may be responsible for sleep apnea, and that similiarly CH is generated in the hypothalamus.

Is there hope for chronic pain and headache?

Currently the clinical needs for pain and headache management are not met. Despite the numerous and exciting recent advances in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms that originate pain, we cannot yet fully explain the mechanism underlying the biology of chronic pain. Pain is a natural mechanism preserving our species survival; however, when the protective quality is lost, physiologic changes to the peripheral and central nervous systems result in the formation of chronic pain states.

Temporomandibular disorders and other causes of facial pain.

Temporomandibular disorders and facial pain cause significant discomfort and disability for affected patients. Understanding the clinical presentation, pathogenesis, and therapy is essential in helping patients who have these problems. This article critically reviews these aspects, with an emphasis on their relationship to headache.

Temporomandibular disorders and headache.

Headache is a common symptom, but when severe, it may be extremely disabling. It is assumed that patients who present to dentists with headache often are diagnosed with a temporomandibular disorder (TMD), although many may have migraine. TMD as a collective term may include several clinical entities, including myogenous and arthrogenous components.

Myofascial pain: diagnosis and management.

Clinical understanding and management of myofascial pain is overlooked frequently when dealing with pain. Myofascial pain is defined as pain or autonomic phenomena referred from active trigger points, with associated dysfunction. The trigger point is a focus of hyperirritability in the muscle that, when compressed, is locally tender and, if sensitized, gives rise to referred pain and tenderness.

The effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on experimental pain and sympathetic nervous system response.

Objective: Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a technique widely used in clinical practice to control pain, although its clinical efficacy remains controversial. Though many mechanisms have been proposed for its analgesic effects, there is a conspicuous lack of experimentally controlled research investigating whether TENS analgesia is related to its effects on the sympathetic nervous system (SNS).

Methods: Using an established psychophysiological paradigm, the present study investigated the effects of high-frequency/low-intensity TENS, low-frequency/high-intensity TENS, and sham TENS on the perception of experimental pain and SNS function in healthy volunteers.

Obstructive sleep apnea and cluster headache.

Unlabelled: A patient with cluster headache often wakes from sleep. The relationship to sleep apnea has been described. This study sought to confirm the relationship cluster may have with sleep apnea.

Depression determines illness conviction and pain impact: a structural equation modeling analysis.

Objective: The present study sought to derive an algorithm using factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) to describe headache and orofacial pain patients using measures of behavioral and psychological functioning. This investigation further examined whether the underlying factor structure differed in 3 presumed distinct diagnostic categories: myofascial, neuropathic, and neurovascular pain.

Design: The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and visual analog scale for functional limitation (VAS-FL) were administered to the subjects.

Lingual nerve injury.

Lingual nerve injury is a common complication following dental and medical procedures. The clinical presentation of lingual nerve injury, its epidemiology, predisposing factors, and anatomy are explored in an attempt to identify those patients at risk for developing neuropathic pain. Nonsurgical and surgical therapies also are discussed.

Multidimensional subgroups in migraine: differential treatment outcome to a pain medicine program.

Objective: The present study compared two different approaches for deriving patient profiles on their ability to predict treatment outcome to a pain medicine program for migraine headache.

Design/methods: Using visual analog scale measures of pain intensity and functional limitations and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), as a measure of depression, 235 migraine patients were classified into statistical clusters. The same patients were also classified using the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) algorithm into three subgroups: Adaptive copers (AC), characterized by lower reported levels of pain intensity, life interference, and distress, as well as higher levels of perceived life control; interpersonally distressed (ID), characterized by more intermediate levels of pain, distress, and interference, with a predominant perception of inadequate support and punishing responses from significant others; and dysfunctional (Dys), characterized by high levels of pain severity, life interference, and distress and low levels of perceived life control and activity.

Current concepts in chronic pain management.

The majority of people afflicted with orofacial pain have acute pain that resolves quickly, but some are left with chronic and disabling pain. Therapy must be provided to deal with the nociception, behavior, and suffering. Appropriate behavioral evaluation may be required prior to developing a treatment plan.